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The Dark Days Inventions

by RadioSilence

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about

Greetingz :-)


This is a rather different RS work. Just 3 analogs and nothing else.


The Dark Days Inventions is so-called because I was working on these pieces during the first fortnight of January 2021. So not only was it dark and miserable outside, shit was getting real west of here. That made it several shades darker. Not forgetting the plague still ravaging the wastelands. All in all, Really F**king Dark. Just sayin’.

So while all this was going on, my policy of sticking my head up my own creative arsehole and pretending it’ll all be fine if I switch my synths on and drown it all out, continued unabated. If you’ve ever wondered why I’m so prolific, that’ll about be it. The world outside has generally little to offer other than a daily kick in the balls at the best of times. I count myself lucky to be able to turn my back to an extent and get on with my work. And yet, creative empathy ensures that a good deal of what’s happening gets reflected throughout my output. Now, in some cases that would be intentional of course. But in the case of RadioSilence you can’t expect something largely machine written to possess any element of such linkage. Having said that, it’s still up to me to determine which notes get played around with, which sounds you’re hearing, its speed and general feel. And in this case, the choice of instruments and commitment to keeping things fairly minimal have led to the music having a lot of space about it.

The instruments themselves (these are what I can afford, so please no politics about my choice of gear when I don’t really have much choice), are just 3 analog knob-boxes. Nothing else was used, just these 3 : Behringer Odyssey & Model D, Korg MS20 Mini. I’ve never tried to tame 3 wonky knob-boxes at the same time. It was less fun than you might imagine. Not only is my garage prone to sudden temperature changes (esp. in the middle of a shitty winter storm), it’s mains circuit is as wonky as f**k and I’m surprised I haven’t blown myself up yet. So getting them in tune with each other was fine. Getting them to stay that way often wasn’t. And as you’ll hear, there are plenty of times when they do sound like it’s all going horribly wrong, only for them to sound fine again a few moments later. That’s just one of the peculiarities. Another is they generate a lot of “air”. Not simply noise, but if you listen deeply to the dry sounds, you’ll often hear subtle harmonics and modulations going on beyond the main sound of the synth. So when everything’s combined and sent though my colossally huge reverb rig (Eventide Blackhole, Fabfilter Pro-R, slow delays, phasing, cheese, biscuits, wine, etc), the resulting space doesn’t sound empty, but is the result of all those harmonics and resonances creating a background already slightly padded out.

The pieces are created this way: Firstly I would choose a set of notes to use as a scale over 3-4 octaves, then use an arpeggiator to play all that randomly and with random LP cut-offs. Really quickly though, so I’ll end up with a vast amount of randomly generated midi notes based around it. I’ll take them and stretch them out in no special way, to get a long piece of slowly generating random notes. Same goes for all 3 synths, each getting random data at a random tempo. Then I set it going and record a performance of it while I’m mixing it and gradually tweaking the synths. That’s it, first pass. To add anything else then, such as sequence, bass etc. I just set the synths up for another performance run with the notes/sounds needed for that 2nd pass. But never more (and often less) than just one line each from each of those 3 synths. And no percussive elements.

I find the result is really quite cerebral, making many changes and spaces allowing for thought and for the mind to wander in general. It’s really nice actually, and of course there’s me infamous for having paid little attention to analog synthesis as it’s own sound, for all these years! Well, hear it for yourself. It just isn’t the same, in fact it’s nothing like a digital synth trying to imitate analog wonk. I’m afraid these analog wonk units do have a distinct wonk all of their very own. In fact there’s no wonk quite like it anywhere else. So please, enjoy this absolute load of total wonk and have fun!!

credits

released January 29, 2021

Realised by RadioSilence (Andy Pickford) between January 2nd - 14th 2021. 24-bit files. NB as analog synths were used on this please expect the odd crackle and glitch here and there, especially on headphones. I’ve cleaned the tracks a little, but don’t want that AI shit messing with the audio too much.

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Andy Pickford Derby, UK

I make immersive synth music, create my own art, eat, drink, shit and exist. I'm not famous but everybody knows my name... like shingles.

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